Winners reactions
Extracts from the press conference of the winners of
film review
trailer
interview: Lars von Trier
film profile], preferred not to speak yet again about the festival’s ban of the film’s director, Lars von Trier.
Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Grand Prix winner with his brother Luc for The Kid with a Bike [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
film profile] - see Focus): "Being selected in competition at Cannes is already a great honour because all the international press can see it over two days. Then the film was very well received and, above all, it won a prize that will help it. And being part of the family of Grand Prix winners, alongside Pasolini, for example, is not bad at all".
Nuri Bilge Ceylan (ex-aequo Grand Prix winner for Once upon a Time in Anatolia [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - see article): "This award exceeds all my expectations, because mine is not an easy film and I thought that screening it the last day would be exhausting for the jury, press and public".
Nicolas Winding Refn (Best Director for Drive): "This film is a mix of Hollywood and my Copenhagen roots. Ryan Gosling did what Lee Marvin did when he sought out John Boorman to shoot Point Blank in the United States. This award gives me many opportunities".
Jean Dujardin (Best Actor for The Artist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile] - see article): "It’s a childish pleasure to receive an award from Robert De Niro for a very audacious film that for a long time I thought would be impossible to finance. But I have no plan for my career and can’t say this is a passport to something else".
Maïwenn (Jury Prize winner for Polisse [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maïwenn
film profile] - see article and interview): "This makes me think above all about my beginnings. It was like climbing stairs, step by step. I did it alone. And it’s no coincidence that film is set among the Brigade for the Protection of Minors because psychological and physical abuse are connected to my childhood".
Robert De Niro (jury president): "Most of us felt that The Tree of Life had the size, importance, intention…to fit the [Palme d'Or]. For Melancholia, the festival had some little punishment for the director, but the film remained in competition. We should point out that the rules state that no film can win more than one prize".
(Translated from French)
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